ex 

T   Q  1   ^ 


THE 

WALDENSIAN 
CHURCH 

GIOVANNI  LUZZI 


THE 

WALDENSIAN 

CHURCH 

Her  Work,  Her  Difficulties, 
Her  Hopes 


By/ 

GIOVANNI  LUZZI,  D.D. 

President  of  the  Waldensian  Seminary 
of  Theology,  Florence,  Italy 

f 


New  York 

DODD,  MEAD  AND  COMPANY 

1914 


Copyright,  1914 
By  The  American  Waldensian  Aid  Societ-v 


PREFACE 


R.  LUZZI,  the  emi- 
nent preacher,  scholar 
and  author,  came  to 
this  country  on  the 
invitation  of  Prince- 
ton Theological  Seminary  to  give 
a  course  of  lectures  to  the  stu- 
dents, but  the  privilege  of  hear- 
ing him  was  eagerly  sought  by 
institutions  of  almost  every  de- 
nomination. 

His  limited  stay  in  this  coun- 
try prevented  his  acceptance  of 
many  invitations  but  he  lectured 
at  the  following  places  :   Union 
Theological   Seminary;    Bible 
Teachers' Training  School,  New 
York  City  ;   Hartford  Theolog- 
ical Seminary ;   Smith  College 
Northampton,    Massachusetts 
Andover  Theological  Seminary 
Cambridge,     Massachusetts 
Episcopal  Divinity  School,  Cam 
bridge,  Massachusetts;  Roches 
ter  Theological  Seminary  ;   Mc- 
Cormick  Theological  Seminary, 


PREFACE 


Chicago;  Western  Theological 
Seminary,  Pittsburgh,  Pennsyl- 
vania; Baptist  Theological  Semi- 
nary, Louisville,  K,entucky. 

Professor  Luzzi  also  made 
addresses  in  many  cities  at  the 
meetings  of  the  Branches  of  the 
American  Waldensian  Aid  So- 
ciety and  it  was  especially  for 
this  organization  that  the  lecture 
was  prepared. 


THE   WALDENSIAN 
CHURCH 


HER  WORK,    HER  DIFFICULTIES, 
HER  HOPES 

SHALL  never  for- 
get that  I  owe  to 
Princeton  the  privi- 
lege of  being  here 
among  you  to-day, 
thus  realizing  a  dream  often 
dreamt  before,  but  never  yet 
realized.  I  feel  that  to  be  among 
you  is  really  a  privilege  and  a 
pleasure,  and  I  thank  you  most 
heartily  for  your  warm  and  cor- 
dial welcome,  which  will  in  future 
be  one  of  my  most  delightful 
recollections.  Still,  I  must  not 
and  I  do  not  forget  that  your 
welcome  is  given  not  so  much 
to  me  personally,  as  to  the  more 
or  less  official  representative  of 
an  old  Church,  of  the  oldest 
Protestant  Church  existing,  and 
as  I  know  you  wish  to  hear 
something  about  her  work,  her 


THE    WALDENSIAN    CHURCH 

difficulties,  her  hopes,  I  am  glad 
to  do  my  best  to  satisfy  your 
desire. 

First  of  all,  a  word  about  the 
extension  of  our  work.  Think 
for  a  moment  of  that  huge  boot, 
the  characteristic  configuration 
of  Italy.  Up  in  the  North,  near 
the  Alps,  is  Piedmont ;  and  in 
Piedmont  are  the  Waldensian 
Valleys  where  the  Waldensian 
people  still  live,  the  remnant  of 
about  thirty  persecutions ;  the 
people  who  knew  well  the  way 
to  prison,  to  exile,  to  the  stake, 
but  who  were  never  forgotten 
bythe  OmnipotentGod.  There, 
scattered  in  several  valleys,  of 
which  the  most  important  are 
those  of  Pellice,  Angrogna  and 
San  Martino,  are  the  old  par- 
ishes which  were  persecuted 
either  by  the  Popes,  by  the 
Princes  of  Savoy,  by  the  Kings 
of  France  in  their  turn,  or  by 
all  of  them  at  the  same  time. 
To-day  there  are  seventeen  of 
those  parishes,  numbering  alto- 


THE    WALDENSIAN     CHURCH 

gether  12,934  communicants. 
They  are  self-supporting.  The 
stipend  of  their  pastors  is  paid 
partly  by  the  parishioners  them- 
selves, who  are  for  the  greater 
part  peasants  and  very  poor, 
and  the  rest  is  made  up  by  a 
fund  which  was  started  by  the 
generous  and  personal  contribu- 
tion of  no  less  a  man  than  Oliver 
Cromwell.  In  those  Piedmont- 
ese  Valleys  the  Waldensian  peo- 
ple found  providential  refuge 
four  centuries  before  the  Refor- 
mation ;  there  they  received  en- 
couragement and  spiritual  help 
by  means  of  the  Swiss  reformers 
in  the  sixteenth  century;  there, 
because  of  the  tyranny  of  Popes 
and  the  weakness  of  princes, 
they  lived  shut  off  as  lepers  until 
the  17th  of  February,  1848, 
when  Charles  Albert,  the  great- 
grandfather of  the  present  king, 
granted  the  edict  of  their  eman- 
cipation. 

The  truly  missionary  move- 
ment of  the  Waldensian  Church 
in    Italy  began  from  that  year, 


THE    WALDENSIAN     CHURCH 

and  the  first  mission  church  was 
built  in  Turin  shortly  after. 

Then  comes  Lombard/  with 
its  flourishing  churches  which 
continue  the  work  already  begun 
there  before  the  Reformation, 
by  the  sects  severed  from  the 
Church  of  Rome.  Then  Venice, 
the  Queen  of  the  Seas,  with 
her  churches  and  "  diasporas." 
In  Venice  the  first  printed  Bib- 
lical texts  were  issued  as  soon  as 
the  art  of  printing  was  invented. 
Then  Liguria,  with  Genoa,  the 
birthplace  of  Christopher  Co- 
lumbus, which  is  also  widely 
evangelized.  Then  Tuscany, 
the  cradle  of  the  modern  Italian 
evangelistic  movement,  with  the 
churches  of  Florence,  Lucca, 
Pisa,  Leghorn,  Siena.  Then 
comes  Ronu  and  the  old  Roman 
States  where  our  work  widens 
and  deepens  in  proportion  as 
it  is  opposed  by  the  Vatican. 
Then  the  A^/'m^^/,  and  Calabria 
where  the  old  Waldensian  colo- 
nies of  the  fourteenth  century 
were   suffocated   in  blood,   but 

8 


THE    WALDENSIAN    CHURCH 

where  the  living  testimony  of 
the  Gospel  is  kept  alive  to-day, 
especially  by  the  emigrants  who 
bring  back,  with  them  the  Gos- 
pel they  have  come  to  know  in 
America.  Then  Naples,  where, 
in  the  school  of  Juan  Valdes, 
the  heroic  Italian  reformers  of 
the  sixteenth  century  were  pre- 
pared, where  at  the  dawn  of  our 
political  redemption  the  Gos- 
pel was  practiced  with  power  in 
the  streets  and  in  the  squares, 
and  where  to-day  it  has  won  to 
Christ  so  many  immortal  souls. 
And  last  but  not  least  there  is 
Sicil/,  the  Volcanic  Sicily,  red- 
hot  in  its  passions  and  in  its 
affections,  with  its  beautiful 
churches,  its  flourishing  schools 
situated  in  almost  all  the  im- 
portant cities  of  the  island. 

I  do  not  want  to  tire  you  with 
figures,  but  in  order  to  be  short 
and  exact,  allow  me  to  mention 
just  a  few. 

Outside  the  Piedmontese  Val- 
leys, where,  as  I  have  already 
told  you,  we  have  seventeen  par- 


THE     WALDENSIAN    CHURCH 

isheswith  12,934  communicants, 
from  Turin  down  to  the  furthest 
limits  of  Sicily,  we  count  42 
churches,  about  203  mission 
stations,  6,603  communicants, 
about  40,000  adherents,  136 
workers  and  2,192  in  the  day 
and  3 ,  104  in  the  Sunday  schools. 
We  have  a  Faculty  of  Divinity, 
a  College  for  classical  studies 
recognized  by  the  Government, 
some  charitable  educational  in- 
stitutions, a  theological  Review 
(La  Ri vista  Cristiana)  and  an 
evangelistic  weekly  paper,  "  La 
Luce." 

In  1883  the  first  Waldensian 
Missionary  started  for  South 
Africa.  Later  on  others  fol- 
lowed him,  directing  their  steps 
towards  the  land  of  the  Basutos 
and  towards  the  inhospitable 
banks  of  the  Upper  Zambesi, 
where  to-day  seven  Waldensian 
missionaries  preach  the  Gospel 
to  the  Barotse  and  to  the  thirty 
tribes  subject  to  them.  And  the 
name  Waldensian,  herald  of  the 
Gospel   of  Christ,   is  honoured 

10 


THE    WALDENSIAN     CHURCH 

and  blessed  in  several  prosper- 
ous colonies  :  in  Wiirtemburg, 
in  South  and  North  America, 
at  Monett  in  Missouri,  and  in 
North  Carolina,  and  among  the 
fluctuating  but  numerous  centers 
of  Waldensian  emigrants  in 
France,  Nice,  Marseilles,  Tou- 
lon and  Lyons. 

Such  are  the  numbers  ;  and 
the  numbers  are  small,  espe- 
cially when  one  considers  that 
the  Waldensian  Church  has  been 
now  at  work  since  1848;  that  is 
to  say,  for  more  than  sixty  years. 
But  the  development  of  the 
"mustard  seed"  is  not  suscepti- 
ble to  any  numerical  valuation; 
and  there  is  no  human  or  mechan- 
ical dynamometer  able  to  meas- 
ure the  mysterious  process  by 
which  the  leaven  of  the  King- 
dom slowly  but  radically  trans- 
forms an  individual,  a  family,  or 
a  country.  In  fact,  consider, 
only  for  a  moment,  this  :  Italian 
converts  who  once  upon  a  time 
were  looked  upon  with  suspi- 
cion, when  they  were  not  alto- 

II 


THE     WALDENSIAN     CHURCH 

gether  kept  in  quarantine  as 
morally  infectious,  and  boy- 
cotted in  public  offices  and  fac- 
tories, are  on  the  contrary  to- 
day esteemed  and  sought  after 
as  men  who  honestly  and  con- 
scientiously do  their  duty.  AH 
doors  are  open  to  them ;  their 
word  is  listened  to  with  inter- 
est, their  advice  is  accepted 
and  followed,  as  the  advice  of 
people  whom  one  can  trust  and 
in  whom  some  authority  is  recog- 
nized. Their  children  are  no 
longer  only  tolerated  in  the 
schools  ;  they  are  loved,  for,  as 
a  rule,  they  are  worthy  of  being 
held  up  by  the  teachers  as  an 
example  to  others.  The  press 
also  speaks  well  of  them.  The 
authorities  protect  them  and 
hold  them  in  high  consideration. 
Public  opinion  has  turned  in 
their  favour.  If  you  ask  those 
around  you  who  the  "  Evan- 
gelicals" are,  their  answer  al- 
most always  is  :  "  What  they 
are  we  cannot  exactly  say  ;  but 
we   know  that   they  are  much 

12 


THE    WALDENSIAN     CHURCH 

better  than  we  are  '' ;  and  often 
you  will  hear  people  who  have 
abandoned  the  Church  of  Rome 
say:  *' We  do  not  belong  any 
longer  to  the  Church;  but,  if 
we  wanted  to,  you  may  be  sure 
that  it  would  not  be  the  Church 
of  Rome ;  it  would  be  yours  we 
should  join."  While  the  culti- 
vated classes  apply  to  various 
pastors  for  Evangelical  servants 
and  nurses  because  they  are 
known  to  be  honest,  diligent 
and  dutiful,  the  Royal  House, 
which  is  and  must  be  Roman 
Catholic,  also  entrusts  its  own 
children  to  the  care  of  Walden- 
sian  governesses.  "Who  can  say 
how  far  the  modern  trend  of 
Italian  thought  towards  positive 
spirituality  is  due  to  our  Evan- 
gelical mission?  Is  not  the  mod- 
ern Reform  m.ovement  within 
the  Church  of  Rome  to  a  large 
extent  due  to  Protestant  influ- 
ence }  Whence  the  fear  of  the 
Vatican  of  Evangelical  propa- 
ganda? The  Vatican  is  not  a 
child  to  be  easily  frightened  ;  it 


13 


THE    WALDENSIAN    CHURCH 

is  inured  to  all  kinds  of  assaults 
and  dangers,  and  does  not  trem- 
ble unless  confronted  with  over- 
powering peril. 

All  these  indirect  results  of 
our  Evangelical  mission  in  Italy 
are  not  susceptible  to  any  nu- 
merical valuation ;  nevertheless 
they  do  not  cease  to  be  of  in- 
calculable value. 


14 


THE    WALDENSIAN    CHURCH 


URELY  the  results 
in  our  mission  field 
might  have  been  and 
should  be  far  more 
extensive  and  note- 
worthy. Let  us  now  consider 
the  causes  that  have  prevented 
a  greater  accomplishment. 


The  first  obstacle  which  our 
Evangelical  work  has  found  in 
Italy  lies  in  the  superficiality 
with  which  the  Italian  people  in 
general  treat  religion.  Luther, 
when  visiting  Italy,  summed  up 
his  impressions  on  the  spiritual 
condition  of  the  country  in  the 
following  phrase:  "The  Ital- 
ians," he  said,  "are  the  most 
impious  among  men."  Calvin, 
when  he  came  to  Ferrara  to 
visit  the  Duchess  Renata,  en- 
couraged the  martyrs  of  Italy  to 
die,  in  order  to  give,  he  said, 
*'  the  crooked  and  perverse  gen- 

15 


THE     WALDENSIAN     CHURCH 

eration  "  in  Italy  an  example  of 
sincerity  and  magnanimity.  And 
the  famous  phrase  of  Erasmus 
is  well  known :  *'  Itali  omnes 
athei";  the  Italians  are  all  athe- 
ists. Now,  all  those  judgments 
are  greatly  exaggerated,  for  it 
is  not  true  that  the  Italians 
are  more  "  impious,"  more 
"  crooked  and  perverse"  than 
other  nations;  and  it  is  false  to  say 
that  they  are  all  * '  atheists."  The 
truth  of  the  matter  is  that  the 
Italians  are  a  race  of  artists  who 
very  easily  mistake  an  aesthetic 
for  a  religious  impression,  an 
artistic  for  a  religious  emotion. 
"When  entering  a  sumptuous  ca- 
thedral inundated  with  light  an 
Italian  feels  profoundly  moved 
by  the  inspiring  notes  which 
come  from  a  hidden  orchestra 
and  rise  to  heaven  through  the 
mysterious  imposing  naves  of 
the  church  ;  he  goes  home  per- 
fectly convinced  that  he  has  ful- 
filled a  religious  duty  and  that 
he  is  therefore  at  peace  with  his 
conscience  and  with  God.  In 
— 


THE    WALDENSIAN     CHURCH 

the  classical  age  of  Italian  art, 
with  the  exception  of  Michel- 
angelo, who  in  all  respects  was 
an  exceptional  man,  the  poets 
who  celebrated  God  in  verse 
did  not  believe  in  God  ;  the  archi- 
tects who  designed  temples  rich 
and  grand  had  no  vision  what- 
everof  the  spiritual  temple  which 
begins  on  earth  and  is  com- 
pleted in  heaven;  and  the  paint- 
ers, who  painted  the  famous 
Madonnas  that  have  now  be- 
come of  world-wide  fame,  chose 
their  models  more  than  often 
from  amongst  the  most  de- 
bauched women  of  the  time. 
And  is  all  this  to  be  wondered 
at  when  in  that  very  age  the 
Pope  himself,  in  the  Vatican, 
kept  a  lamp  constantly  burnin 
before  the  portrait  of  Plato  an 
attended  the  performance  of  an 
obscene  play  such  as  Machia- 
velli's  "  Mandragora  "  } 

Now,  this  superficial  concep- 
tion of  the  "divine"  and  this 
mistaken  ethical  notion  of  life, 
which  we  find  in  all  ages  in  the 

17 


THE    WALDENSIAN     CHURCH 

mind  of  the  Italian  people,  do 
not  surely  prepare  the  ground 
to  receive  with  special  favour 
the  good  seed  of  the  Word  of 
God. 

II 

A  second  obstacle  lies  in  the 
reaction  caused  by  Roman  Ca- 
tholicism in  the  land.  The 
Italians,  as  far  as  religion  is  con- 
cerned, may  be  divided  into  four 
categories:  the  bigoted,  who  are 
the  fewest  in  number;  the  ear- 
nest believers  who  have  given 
up  all  superstitious  practices  and 
papistic  absurdities,  but  who  are 
unfortunately  not  as  many  as  we 
would  wish  them,  to  be;  the 
rebels  and  the  indifferent,  who 
are  of  the  larger  number.  Ro- 
manism, by  exacting  from  the 
people  a  belief  in  too  many 
things  which,  for  the  greater 
part,  are  absurd  and  incredible, 
has  led  the  more  warm-blooded 
ones,  who  are  always  ready  to 
fight,  to  rebellion;  and  those 
more  inclined  to  apathy  and  fond 


THE     WALDENSIAN     CHURCH 


of  a  peaceful  life,  to  indifference. 
And  you  well  know  how  diffi- 
cult it  is  to  move  an  indifferent 
nature.  How  psychologically 
true  is  the  saying  of  our  Lord 
to  the  Laodiceans :  "I  would 
that  thou  wert  cold  or  hot  1" 
As  far  as  the  rebels  are  con- 
cerned, those,  namely,  who  by 
turning  their  back  on  Roman 
Catholicism  bid  good-bye  to  all 
religion,  it  is  sometimes  almost 
impossible  to  persuade  them  that 
Rom.anism  is  only  a  form  of  re- 
ligion and  not  the  only  true  re- 
ligion ;  to  convince  them  that  a 
distinction  has  to  be  made  be- 
tween Roman  Catholicism  and 
the  Christianity  of  Christ,  and 
that  the  Christianity  of  Christ  is 
still  worth  the  consideration  of  a 
sensible  man. 

Ill 

A  third  obstacle  is  in  the  moral 
condition  of  the  people.  You 
have  no  idea  of  the  havoc 
wrought  in  the  moral  life  of  the 
country,  especially  in  the  South, 


19 


THE    WALDENSIAN     CHURCH 

by  papacy  and  foreign  dominion. 
I  have  often  thought  that  noth- 
ing could  be  more  interesting 
than  a  psychological  study  of 
the  various  regions  of  Italy. 
Piedmont,  for  instance,  over 
which  the  House  of  Savoy 
reigned,  having  been  less  than 
other  regions  at  the  mercy  of 
the  Pope  and  having  been  spared 
the  experiences  which  other  re- 
gions infested  by  foreign  op- 
pressors had  to  undergo,  was 
able  to  keep  itself  a  strong,  in- 
dependent and  disciplined  re- 
gion ;  and  there  a  widely  spread 
and  earnest  evangelical  work 
was  possible.  Lombardy,  which 
has  in  its  history  so  many  glori- 
ous pages,  ripened  in  times  of 
great  distress  when  it  was  in  a 
thousand  ways  ill-treated  by 
Austria,  and  was  thus  prepared 
to  receive  the  Gospel.  Genoa 
and  Liguria,  in  spite  of  their 
having  ever  had  the  riches  of 
the  earth  and  of  the  seas  more 
at  heart  than  heavenly  riches, 
were     not    inaccessible   to   the 


20 


THE     WALDENSIAN     CHURCH 

teaching  of  the  Gospel.  Tus- 
cany had  always  worshipped 
art  and  conviviality  ;  neverthe- 
less, as  I  have  already  said,  in 
the  first  half  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  it  was  the  cradle  of  our 
Italian  mission  work  and  had 
and  has  still  several  flourishing 
churches.  But  in  the  rest  of 
Italy,  in  the  Papal  States,  in 
Naples,  in  Sicily,  where  the 
Bourbons  ruled  in  a  way  that 
Gladstone  defined  before  all 
Europe  as  *'The  negation  of 
God "  and  where  often  priests 
and  friars  led  the  bands  of  brig- 
ands which  infested  the  country, 
papacy  and  foreign  dominion 
have  left  traces  which  will  take 
long  to  disappear.  There, 
the  populace,  deceived  by  the 
priests,  used  to  fly  away  in  horror 
from  the  Protestants,  thinking 
that  they  were  monsters  with 
only  one  eye  on  their  forehead ; 
and  that,  in  the  middle  of  the 
nineteenth  century;  there,  our 
churches  have  been  set  on  fire 
by  the  mob  stirred   up  by  the 


THE    WALDENSIAN    CHURCH 

friars;  there,  our  colporteurs 
have  been  stoned;  there,  peo- 
ple have  swallowed  and  still 
swallow  for  special  devotional 
purposes  images  of  saints  and 
Madonnas;  there,  the  preach- 
ers make  the  crucifixes  on  the 
pulpits  to  turn  their  eyes  round 
on  a  congregation  who  is  out 
of  its  mind  with  fear ;  there, 
thieves  and  rascals  of  all  kinds 
bear  about  their  persons  most  re- 
ligiously sacred  images  as  amu- 
lets and  have  candles  lit  before 
their  favourite  Madonnas  in 
order  to  be  kept  safe  from  the 
prosecution  of  the  law;  there, 
finally,  the  "camorrists"  and 
'•  mafiosi"  offer  on  the  altars  of 
their  special  churches  part  of 
the  product  of  their  thefts  and 
murders,  which  quickly  finds 
its  way  into  the  pockets  of 
priests  who  are  without  con- 
science and  v/ithout  morality. 

IV 

A  fourth  obstacle  to  our  work 
in  Italy  has  been,  up  to  the  pres- 

22 


THE     WALDENSIAN     CHURCH 

ent,  the  attitude  of  contempt 
which  men  of  letters  and  of  sci- 
ence, and  socialism  have  assumed 
towards  our  movement.  Our 
literature,  up  to  a  short  time  ago, 
has  been  pagan  in  its  general 
tendency.  The  worship  of  form 
was  enough ;  the  idea,  the  sub- 
stance, counted  for  little  or  noth- 
ing. It  was  a  kind  of  rejuve- 
nescence of  the  spirit  of  the 
renaissance.  Science,  till  lately, 
was,  one  may  say,  almost  ex- 
clusively materialistic.  BCich- 
ner,  Vogt,  Moleshott,  Haeckel 
and  Darwin,  through  ignorance 
or  malice  falsely  interpreted  and 
made  to  serve  materialistic  ends, 
were  its  prophets.  Socialism, 
which  about  the  end  of  the 
nineteenth  century  invaded 
Italy  and  influenced  the  masses, 
became  at  once  atheistic.  No 
one  might  then  have  been  a  so- 
cialist and  a  believer  at  the  same 
time.  To  be  an  atheist  was  a 
**  conditio  sine  qua  non  "  to  be 
a  socialist.  Italian  socialism 
was    the   absolute    negation   of 


23 


THE    WALDENSIAN     CHURCH 

the  Spirit,  and  the  deification  of 
the  stomach.  In  no  country, 
perhaps,  was  the  word  of  the 
great  thinker  Robert  Flint 
found  truer  than  in  Italy:  "The 
fortune  of  Socialism,  as  com- 
monly understood,  lies  in  the 
poverty  of  its  ideal."  Now,  it 
is  clear  that  all  those  causes, 
combined,  could  not  help,  and 
in  fact  they  did  not  help  the 
creation  of  an  atmosphere  con- 
genial to  our  work  either  among 
the  cultivated  class,  or  among 
the  popular  masses. 

V 

The  last  but  not  the  smallest 
obstacle  to  our  work  in  Italy 
was  illiteracy.  In  a  land  where 
the  '* examining  the  Scripture" 
to  ascertain  "  whether  the  things 
are  or  are  not  so  "  is  made  al- 
most impossible  or  greatly  re- 
stricted on  account  of  the  gen- 
eral educational  conditions,  one 
understands  that  a  work  of 
propaganda,  bound  to  limit  itself 
to  the  living  word  of  a  handful 

24 


THE     WALDENSIAN     CHURCH 

of  preachers,  cannot  make  much 
progress.  And  in  this  respect 
the  general  conditions  of  Italy 
have  been,  up  to  now,  much 
more  serious  than  one  im- 
agines. The  cause  of  it  all 
is  principally  in  the  Church  of 
Rome  which,  in  order  to  better 
establish  herself,  has  always  en- 
couraged ignorance  rather  than 
education.  In  fact,  in  those 
parts  of  the  country  where  the 
power  of  Rome  has  been  more 
felt,  illiteracy  has  been  and  is 
still  rampant.  A  few  official 
figures  will  give  you  the  unde- 
niable proof  of  what  I  say  : 

In  the  whole  kingdom  in  1901 
we  reckoned  an  average  of  il- 
literacy of  48% : 

In  Turin  of  21%. 

In  Milan  of  17%. 

In  Florence  of  19%. 

In  Rome  and  neighbouring 
provinces  of  43%. 

In   Naples  and  surroundings 

of  $4%. 

In  Sicily,  Basilicata  and 
Calabria  of  75%. 


25 


THE    WALDENSIAN    CHURCH 


II 


N  the  strength  of  all 
I  have  said,  I  should 
not  like  you  to  be 
led  to  the  conclu- 
sion that  the  condi- 
tion of  our  work  in  Italy  is  a 
desperate  one.  Far  from  it. 
Never  were  the  conditions  of 
our  work  more  favourable  than 
they  are  at  the  dawn  of  the 
twentieth  century;  and  the 
Italian  evangelist  had  never 
better  cause  than  he  has  at 
present  to  look  into  the  future 
with  serene  eyes  and  with  a 
hopeful  heart.  Here  are  the 
reasons  for  my  bold  statement. 

I 

The  first  lies  in  the  Italian 
character.  Do  not  think  it  a 
contradiction  to  what  I  said  a 
few  minutes  ago.  I  accentu- 
ated then  the  fact  of  the  havoc 
wrought  by  papacy  and  foreign 
dominion  on  the  moral  life  of  a 


26 


THE    WALDENSIAN     CHURCH 

large  part  of  Italy;  but  here  I 
must  empliasize,  as  strongly  as 
I  did  then,  another  fact;  the 
fact  that  the  Italian  character  is 
essentially  good,  most  generous 
and  noble  ;  it  is  a  character  that 
when,  either  inspired  by  a  high 
ideal  or  sanctified  by  the  grace 
of  God,  transforms  and  elevates 
itself,  becomes  one  of  the  most 
beautiful  characters  to  be  met 
with  on  earth.  Think  of  the 
persevering  power  shown  in  the 
field  of  scientific  research  by  this 
people.  Whatever  be  the  idea 
you  may  have  conceived  con- 
cerning our  latest  war,  think  of 
the  heroic  acts  accomplished  by 
land  ^nd  by  sea  bv  the  glorious 
sons  of  Italy.  Think  of  the 
martyrs  of  our  Italian  reforma- 
tion in  the  sixteenth  century;  of 
Pietro  Carnesecchi  who,  when 
delivered  into  the  hands  of  the 
Pope  by  Cosimo  de  Medici, 
went  to  the  stake  on  Piazza 
Castel  St.  Angelo  in  Rome, 
clothed  in  his  best  and  putting 
on  a  new  pair  of  gloves  just  as 


27 


THE    WALDENSIAN     CHURCH 

if  going  to  a  court  reception 
and  not  to  be  burnt ;  think  of 
Gioffredo  Varaglia  who,  in  Pi- 
azza Castello  in  Turin,  answered 
the  executionerwho  was  begging 
to  be  forgiven  by  him  for  what 
he  was  on  the  point  of  doing: 
"Go  on;  do  what  you  have  to 
do.  Not  only  you  do  I  forgive 
but  also  those  who  have  brought 
me  to  this.  Do  not  be  afraid  ; 
my  blood  will  not  be  shed  in 
vain"  ;  think  of  Aonio  Palleario 
who,  a  few  hours  before  his 
being  taken  to  the  stake,  wrote 
to  his  wife  a  letter  which  is  a 
miracle  of  courage,  faith  and 
love,  that  even  now  moves  one 
to  tears. 

I  have  been  pastor  in  Flor- 
ence for  seventeen  years,  and  I 
have  seen  in  my  church  charac- 
ters which,  when  sanctified  by 
the  grace  of  God,  have  become 
beautiful  with  extraordinary 
beauty.  What  cannot  the  grace 
of  God  do  with  a  character  such 
as  the  Italian,  fine  and  delicate 
by  nature,  rich    in   poetic   and 

'  ^8 


THE    WALDENSIAN     CHURCH 

artistic  sense,  highly  mystical 
and  at  the  same  time  wonder- 
fully practical,  always  ready  to 
yield  itself  completely,  unre- 
servedly, to  the  person  or  the 
cause  it  loves?  If  in  spite  of 
all  its  political,  religious  and 
moral  drawbacks  the  Italian 
character  has  brought  forth  what 
it  has  up  to  the  present,  what 
shall  it  not  be  capable  of  when 
it  finds  itself  in  a  favourable  en- 
vironment with  the  chance  of 
giving  all  that  it  is  able  to  give? 
The  Christianity  of  Christ  will 
give  that  chance  to  the  Italian 
character ;  or,  rather,  pjc  shall 
give  it  that  chance  by  heralding 
the  Gospel  of  Christ  in  Italy. 

II 

My  second  reason  lies  in  the 
evident  and  rapid  decay  of 
papacy,  the  everlasting  cause  of 
all  the  evils  of  Italy.  Do  not 
think  I  am  exaggerating.  Pa- 
pacy has  caused  Italy  to  fall  so 
often  into  the  hands  of  foreign 
armies   which    have    plundered 

29 


THE    WALDENSIAN     CHURCH 

and  ruined  her;  papacy  was 
one  of  the  principal  causes 
whereby  the  Reformation  could 
not  take  root  in  Italy;  to  pa- 
pacy Italy  owes  her  having  been, 
to  such  a  large  extent,  plunged 
in  the  grossest  superstition  and 
ignorance ;  papacy  hurled  its 
excommunication  against  all  the 
patriots,  against  the  King  and 
the  army  who,  on  the  20th 
September,  1870,  gave  united 
Italy  Rome  as  her  capital;  pa- 
pacy has  written  in  the  Syllabus 
issued  by  Pius  IX  the  following 
words  which  the  whole  world 
should  know:  "To  whomever 
shall  say  that  the  Church  can 
and  must  reconcile  herself  to 
progress  and  modern  civiliza- 
tion, anathema  sit  (let  him  be 
cursed)."  And  is  it  really  possi- 
ble that  an  institution  such  as 
that  can  last?  Is  it  possible 
that  it  can  escape  the  judgment 
it  deserves  on  account  of  all  its 
past  and  present  faults?  Is  it 
possible  that  an  institution  repre- 
senting the  kingdom  of  darkness 

30 


THE    WALDENSIAN     CHURCH 

can  overcome  modern  civiliza- 
tion which  belongs  to  the  king- 
dom of  light?  To  believe  as 
many  do  in  the  fatal  eternity  of 
the  papal  colossus  is  simply  ab- 
surd. Has  not  humanity  wit- 
nessed in  the  past  the  fall  of 
many  other  and  greater  giants  ? 
The  papal  colossus,  which  be- 
gan by  being  built  on  a  relig- 
ious basis  and  grew  by  means  of 
worldly  materials  and  intentions, 
has  ended  by  being  to-day  noth- 
ing but  a  great  political  organi- 
zation. And  this  organization 
which  has  always  justly  aston- 
ished the  world  on  account  of 
its  compactness,  begins  to  give 
way.  It  is  tormented  by  a  gen- 
eral internal  discontent ;  it  is 
being  discredited  in  the  whole 
Latin  race  ;  the  farce  of  the  im- 
prisonment of  the  Pope  does 
no  longer  move  one  even  to 
laughter ;  it  moves  one  to  com- 
passion. Pius  X  will  be  re- 
corded in  history  as  the  least 
obeyed  Pope  that  ever  existed. 
I  could  quote  at  least  sepen  of 


31 


THE    WALDENSIAN    CHURCH 

his  last  official  utterances,  which 
either    nobody   has    taken   any 
notice  of,  or  he  himself  has  been 
obliged  to  withdraw.     You  may 
know  the  prophecies  concern- 
ing the  Popes,  attributed  to  bt. 
Malachy,  the  Irish  Archbishop 
of  the  twelfth   century.     Alter    | 
all  they  do  not  seem  to  be  so 
fanciful  as  they  are  thought  to 
be     St.  Malachy  prognosticated 
the  pontificate  of  Leo  XI II  with 
the  motto :   Lumen  in  Coelo  (a 
light  in  heaven) ;  and  in  fact  the 
coat  of  arms   of  the  family  of 
Leo  XIII  had  a  comet  (lumen) 
in    a   blue   ground  (heaven). 
Pius  X  foretold  as  Ignis  ardens 
(a   burning   fire);    and   in   fact 
under  his  pontificate  a  religious 

turmoil  has  disturbed  all  Europe. 
The  future  Pontiff  is  prognosti- 
cated as  Religio  depopulata  (Re- 
ligion devastated)  ;  his  successor 
as  Pastor  bonus  (the  good  Pas- 
tor) ;  the  following  Pope  as  Pas- 
tor nauta  (the  navigaUng  pastor) , 
and  a-propos  of  this  -  Pastor 
nauta;;^^ 

32 


THE     WALDENSIAN     CHURCH 

cans  hope  that  the  Pontiff  who 
has  that  motto  will  be  a  man 
who  will  sail  to  Rome  from  New 
York  to  assume  the  tiara.  We, 
in  Italy,  think  instead  that  the 
Pastor  nauta"  will  be  an  Ital- 
ian Pope  who  will  be  obliged 
to  pack  up  and  embark  for 
America.  Be  it  as  it  may,  the 
fact  is  that  Italy,  relieved  of  this 
awful  incubus  of  papacy,  will  be 
better  able  than  ever  to  breathe 
freely  the  pure  and  sanctifying 
air  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ. 

Ill 
My  third  reason  lies  in  a 
quantity  of  facts  which,  by 
reason  of  the  shortness  of  time, 
I  am  obliged  to  group  together. 
The  great  improvement  attained 
in  the  general  moral  conditions 
of  Italy  in  these  last  years  is 
surely  an  undeniable  fact.  The 
Government  is  fighting  bravely 
against  evils  such  as  illiteracy 
and  immorality,  and  encourages 
in  several  ways  those  private  so- 
cieties which  are  willing  to  work 

33 


THE    WALDENSIAN     CHURCH 

hand  in  hand  with  it  to  that  end. 
Several  wise  laws  with  that  aim 
in  view  have  lately  not  only 
been  promulgated  but  have  also 
been  enforced  most  energetic- 
ally. Meanwhile,  a  something 
new  has  begun  to  be  felt  in  1  taly ; 
it  is  the  Italian  conscience  which 
is  beginning  to  awaken  ;  it  is  a 
new  spirit  brooding  over  Italy 
from  the  Alps  to  the  extreme 
limits  of  Sicily  ;  and  as  a  result 
of  this  revival,  the  most  impor- 
tant publishing  firms  of  the  coun- 
try are  issuing  for  the  first  time 
the  translations  of  foreign  works 
bearing  on  the  great  problems 
of  the  spirit;  philosophical 
thought,  up  to  now  generally 
posit ivist,  begins  to  bend 
towards  higher,  truly  positive 
and  Christian  horizons;  scien- 
tific thought  is  bidding  good- 
bye to  the  old  prophets  of  ma- 
terialism ;  it  no  longer  fran- 
tically condemns  religion  in  the 
name  of  science,  but  allows 
that  beside  the  phenomena  to 
be  ascertained    by  the    senses, 

34 


THE    WALDENSIAN     CHURCH 

there  are  other  phenomena  ; 
the  psychical,  the  spiritual,  the 
study  of  which  must  be  left  to 
religion;  it  begins  to  understand 
that  although  Religion  and  Sci- 
ence have  both  Truth  for  their 
goal,  still  they  march  towards  it 
by  different  roads  ;  so  that  noth- 
ing can  be  more  absurd  than 
their  hostility  towards  each 
other;  it  begins  to  understand 
that  the  best  and  only  reasonable 
thing  to  do  is  to  love  and  help 
each  other,  because  science  is 
as  useful  and  needful  to  relig- 
ion, as  religion  is  to  science. 
And  even  socialism  begins  to 
wonder  if  up  to  the  present  it 
has  not  been  following  a  false 
track  by  so  absolutely  and  ex- 
clusively asserting  itself  as  an 
atheistic  movement ;  if  it  has  not 
been  wrong  in  neglecting,  as  it 
has  done,  religion  as  a  trans- 
forming power  of  society ;  and 
whilst  the  majority  of  Italian 
socialists  already  allow  the  com- 
patability  of  a  religious  belief 
with  socialism  in  the  individual, 


35 


THE    WALDENSIAN     CHURCH 

not  a  few  of  them  already  advo- 
cate the  cause  not  of  papism 
(for  no  sensible  person  wants 
ever  to  hear  the  name  papism 
mentioned  again  in  Italy),  but 
the  cause  of  the  Christianity  of 
Christ,  understood  as  a  power- 
ful social  dynamic. 

All  these  truly  providential 
facts  show  that  during  the  last 
ten  or  fifteen  years  a  most  re- 
ceptive, favourable,  promising 
ground  has  been  prepared  in 
Italy  for  the  preaching  of  the 
Gospel. 

IV 

A  fourth  reason  lies  in  mod- 
ernism, that  is  to  say,  in  the 
present  attempt  which  is  being 
made  towards  a  reform  within 
the  Church  of  Rome.  I  shall 
not  enter  here  into  too  many 
particulars  on  this  important 
subject.  Let  this  only  be  suffi- 
cient for  the  moment :  that  this 
modernism  is  not,  as  the  Roman 
Curia  defines  it,  "a  cry  of  re- 
bellion against  religion,"  but  a 

36 


THE     WALDENSIAN     CHURCH 

cry  of  rebellion  coming  from  the 
best  and  most  spiritual  part  of 
the  Roman  clergy,  against  the 
worldliness,  the  overbearing 
spirit,  the  tyranny  of  the  Vati- 
can, and  against  the  spiritual 
and  moral  corruption  into  which 
the  Church  of  Rome,  in  our 
Latin  countries  at  least,  has 
fallen.  Those  men  do  not  wish 
to  leave  their  Church,  they  want 
to  reform,  to  Christianize  their 
Church ;  they  know  that  to  leave 
the  Church  now  would  mean  to 
abandon  her  altogether  to  those 
who  would  utterly  ruin  her. 
They  want  to  see  their  Church 
renovated  which  at  present  is 
governed  not  by  Pius  X ;  but 
by  the  Jesuits  who  surround 
him,  in  the  same  way  as  Giro- 
lamo  Savonarola  wanted  to  reno- 
vate the  Church  which  was 
under  the  misrule  of  Pope  Alex- 
ander VI.  They  want  to  give 
back  to  Christ  the  place  that  in 
the  Church  is  only  due  to  Him. 
They  want  the  Saints  and  the 
Virgin  Mary  to  be  put  back  in 

37 


THE    WALDENSIAN    CHURCH 

their  own  respective  places. 
They  want  to  do  away  with  all 
kinds  of  superstition  and  ma- 
terialism in  the  Christian  wor- 
ship. They  want  God  to  be 
worshipped  again  in  and  outside 
their  cathedrals,  "in  spirit  and 
in  truth."  They  want  the  power 
of  the  Pope  to  be  limited  ;  they 
want  him  to  become  the  Bishop 
of  Rome  and  among  all  the  other 
bishops  nothing  more  than  a 
**  primus  inter  pares."  They 
want  the  priests  to  be  elected 
by  the  parishioners  and  not  to 
be  imposed  on  the  parishes  by 
the  bishops.  They  want  celiba- 
cy for  the  clergy  to  be  voluntary 
and  not  compulsory.  They  want 
Rome  to  be  recognized  as  the 
legitimate  capital  of  the  United 
Kingdom  of  Italy.  They  want 
the  Vatican  to  give  up  all  aspira- 
tions to  a  temporal  power  and 
to  concern  itself  only  with  the 
spiritual  welfare  of  the  nation. 
They  want  finally  the  Gospel  to 
have  free  course  from  the  Alps 
to  the  furthest  limits  of  Sicily, 

38 


THE     WALDENSIAN     CHURCH 

and  from  sea  to  sea.  The  move- 
ment is  vast;  it  has  its  repre- 
sentatives in  the  Vatican  itself 
and  has  its  roots  planted  in  the 
remotest  and  humblest  parishes. 
It  is  no  longer  the  protest  of  a 
few  sporadic  cases  which  the 
gallows  and  the  stake  could  once 
upon  a  time  eliminate  ;  it  is  a 
secret,  strong,  general  protest, 
which  a  thousand  gallows  would 
be  unable  to  extinguish ;  the 
protest  which  is  undermining 
the  whole  papal  institution,  and 
which  one  day  or  other  will  over- 
throvv  the  old  and  cracked  edi- 
fice, out  of  whose  ruins  the  pure 
renovated  Church  will  arise, 
just  as  out  of  the  ruins  of  the 
Jewish  temple  the  first  Church 
arose. 

What  will  the  future  of  mod- 
ernism be  ?  Will  the  modernists 
end  by  leaving  the  Church  and 
forming  a  new  Church,  a  Church 
of  their  own,  such  as  for  in- 
stance the  Old  Catholic  Church  ? 
I  do  not  think  so.  They  are  too 
attached  to  their  own  Church; 

39 


THE    WALDENSIAN     CHURCH 

they  do  not  want  to  leave  her; 
they  want  to  stay  and  have  her 
given  back  to  her  primitive  sim- 
plicity and  spirituality.  Will 
they  end  by  coming  over  to  us? 
to  our  Protestant  churches? 
Some  already  have  come  and 
many  more  will  undoubtedly 
come  over  to  us  ;  and  we  re- 
ceive them  with  open  arms  ;  be- 
cause we  reckon  those  to  be 
men  of  character  who  do  not 
trifle  with  their  own  conscience  ; 
but  the  great  bulk  of  them  will 
not  come  over  to  us :  for  three 
reasons  especially:  first,  because 
they  think  their  form  of  Church 
organization  to  be  more  conge- 
nial to  the  Latin  race  than  any 
other  form ;  secondly,  because 
accustomed  as  they  are  to  the 
great  idea  of  the  Unity  of  the 
Church,  they  have  no  sympathy 
with  our  often  so  accentuated 
denominationalism  ;  thirdly,  be- 
cause they  consider  our  Prot- 
estantism too  much  as  a  foreign 
importation,  and  too  young  to 
be  accepted  by  a  race  so  old. 

40 


THE     WALDENSIAN     CHURCH 

Will  they  succeed  in  their  ef- 
forts ?  And  why  not  ?  I  am 
almost  sure  that  in  a  few  years 
the  minority  of  to-day  will  have 
become  a  majority,  that  in  a 
few  years  modernism  will  have 
grown  so  strong  as  to  confront 
the  arrogance  of  the  Vatican ; 
and  in  that  solemn  hour  the 
Vatican  will  find  itself  before 
this  tragic  dilemma :  either  to 
Christianize  itself  or  die.  And 
if  modernism  were  really  to 
succeed  in  its  efforts,  what 
harm  would  there  be  in  having 
in  our  Latin  race  a  truly  Chris- 
tian episcopal  Church  working 
hand  in  hand  with  our  Churches 
in  view  of  the  moral  and  spiritual 
redemption  of  Italy  > 

Meanwhile,  I  strongly  feel 
that  our  mod-ern  Protestantism, 
which  is  the  offspring  of  free- 
dom and  light,  is  bound  to  sym- 
pathize with  a  movement  such 
as  this,  which  is  working  from 
within  the  Church  of  Rome  with 
the  same  aim  in  view,  with  which 
we  are  working  from  without.    It 


41 


THE    WALDENSIAN     CHURCH 

is  bound  to  sympathize  with  these 
"dreamers,"  as  they  are  called 
by  some;  '*  dreamers"  who 
fight  and  suffer  for  the  sake  of 
an  ideal,  which  is  according  to 
the  mind  of  God,  which  Christ 
cannot  but  approve  of,  and  which 
is  certainly  due  to  the  inspiration 
of  His  spirit.  History  teaches 
us  that  the  dreams  of  dreamers 
such  as  these  become,  sooner  or 
later,  to  the  astonishment  of  all, 
glorious  realities ;  and  this  move- 
ment which  is  destined  to  hasten 
in  Italy  and  in  all  Latin  coun- 
tries the  coming  of  that  King- 
dom of  God  for  which  we  Prot- 
estants of  Italy  have  been  work- 
ing  for  more  than  half  a  century 
amidst  so  many  difficulties,  fills 
us  with  encouragement  and  with 
hopes  of  new,  greater  and  more 
glorious  triumphs. 

V 

Finally,  we  have  a  fifth  reason 
for  looking  into  the  future  with 
a  serene  and  hopeful  eye. 

Is  it  possible,  I  ask, 'that  God 

42 


THE    WALDENSIAN     CHURCH 


should  forget  Italy?    This  Italy, 
which   He  Himself  has  made  so 
beautiful,  the   cradle  of  art,  of 
music,  of  poetry  ?     Is  it  possible 
that  He  should  allow  this  Chris- 
tian Church  of   Italy,   founded 
most  probably  by  the  "  sojourn- 
ers   from    Rome''  who    heard 
Peter  on  the  day  of  Pentecost 
and  became  afterwards  the  cor- 
rupt Church  of  the  Popes,  is  it 
possible   that   He  should  allow 
her  to  perish  in  her  corruption 
without  any  hope  of  being  ever 
renovated  ?     Did  the  martyrs  of 
all  centuries  who  died  ''  greeting 
from  afar"  their  spiritually  re- 
deemed fatherland,  die  then  in 
vain  ?     Is  it  then  no  longer  true 
that  the  blood  of  the  martyrs  is 
the  seed  of  the  Church  ?     And 
why  then  was  this  Waldensian 
Church  ''snatched   out  of  the 
fire"  of  thirty  persecutions  and 
for  so  many  centuries  preserved 
within  the   natural  bulwarks  of 
the    Alps?     And   why  was   the 
edict  of  emancipation   of   1848 
granted  to  the  Waldensian  peo- 

43 


THE    WALDENSIAN     CHURCH 

pie  ?  Does  God  ever  emanci- 
pate individuals  or  peoples  with- 
out a  special  aim?  And  all  those 
churches,  all  those  mission  sta- 
tions scattered  under  the  shadow 
of  the  Alps,  the  Apennines,  at 
the  foot  of  Vesuvius  and  Etna, 
are  they  not  the  earnest  of  even 
vaster  conquests  ?  Are  they  not 
the  guarantee  that  Italy  also  w^ill 
be  some  day  or  other  traced  on 
the  map  of  the  Kingdom  of  God 
as  the  most  beautiful  among  its 
beautiful  provinces  ?  And  is  it 
not  a  symptomatic  fact  that  this 
Waldensian  Church,  situated  as 
she  is  on  the  border  line  be- 
tween France  and  Italy,  was 
not  exterminated  either  by  the 
whirl  of  French  rationalism  of 
the  eighteenth  century,  or  by 
that  reaction  against  papal  spir- 
itual tyranny  which  is  Italian 
unbelief?  Should  God  for  no 
purpose  whatever  have  left  to 
Himself  in  Italy  a  few  thousand 
men  who  never  bowed  the  knee 
to  Baal  ?  Why  then  this  faith- 
ful remnant  ? 

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THE    WALDENSIAN     CHURCH 

Surely,  in  order  to  conquer 
Italy  not  for  a  sect,  not  for  a 
special  religious  denomination, 
not  for  any  special  ecclesiastical 
organization,  but  for  Christ. 

I  do  not  want  to  trespass  on 
your  patience.  Perhaps  I  have 
already  trespassed  too  long,  and 
it  is  now  time  that  I  should  stop. 
I  cannot  do  so,  however,  before 
having  thanked  you  for  the  love 
you  have  shown  and  still  show 
to  the  old  and  glorious  Walden- 
sian  Church  which  I  have  had 
the  honour  to  represent  lately  in 
the  United  States. 

Continue  to  her  your  affec- 
tions ;  give  your  names  and 
your  support  gladly  to  our 
American  Waldensian  Aid  So- 
ciety ;  do  not  withhold  from 
her  your  sympathy  ;  stretch  out 
a  helping  hand  to  her  when  her 
appealing  voice  reaches  you. 

Many  content  themselves  with 
considering  Italy  only  as  the 
garden  of  Europe,  or  as  a  colos- 
sal museum,  or  as  an  immense 


45 


THE    WALDENSIAN    CHURCH 

favourite  resort,  or  as  a  huge 
hotel ;  but  to  us  she  must  be 
something  nobler  and  greater 
than  that.  Now  that  Italy  is 
politically  united,  she  must  be- 
come more  than  what  she  was 
once  upon  a  time  ;  namely,  not 
only  the  cradle  of  art,  but  of  an 
art  essentially  Christian  ;  not 
only  a  teacher  of  civilization, 
but  of  a  civilization  inspired  by 
the  Christianity  of  Christ,  a 
great  nation,  not  with  a  great- 
ness bound,  as  St.  Augustine 
said,  to  be  the  principal  cause 
of  her  ruin,  but  with  a  greatness 
productive  of  many  and  abiding 
triumphs  in  the  Kingdom  of 
God. 

With  that  aim  in  view  the 
Waldensian  Church  is  working 
in  Italy  ;  and  with  that  noble 
aim  in  view  I  exhort  you  to 
work  with  her.  The  goal  is 
worthy  of  her  and  is  worthy  of 
you  who  are  at  the  vanguard  in 
the  triumphal  march  of  humanity 
towards  freedom  and  civiliza- 
tion. 


46 


THE    WALDENSIAN     CHURCH 

And  to  your  prayers,  to  your 
love  and  sympathy  I  strongly 
commend  the  Waldensian 
Church,  the  Church  of  the 
martyrs,  the  Church  reformed 
at  least  four  centuries  before 
the  Reformation,  the  Church 
which,  gathering  in  her  bosom 
the  scattered  remnants  of  the 
ancient  protests  which  Rome 
had  suffocated  in  blood,  paved 
the  way  for  the  protests  from 
which  issued  all  the  liberties  we 
now  enjoy  ;  the  Church  which 
is  not. my  Church,  which  is  not 
the  Church  of  Italy,  but  which 
is  your  Church,  inasmuch  as  she 
is  the  vanguard  of  the  Protes- 
tantism of  the  world  in  the  clas- 
sical land  of  the  Popes. 


47 


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